Friday, April 17, 2009

The Whole Organization is .500

We're all aware that our Philadelphia Phillies have a .500 winning percentage with a 4-4 record. Low A Ball Lakewood is also .500 at 4-4 Those double A Reading Phillies are .500 also, at 3-3. Triple A Lehigh Valley and High A Clearwater total out to .500 with their 2-5 and 5-2 records respectively.

A look around the stat boards after just over a week of minor leagues games delivers some surprises...

Lakewood's first baseman Jim Murphy is roughing up South Atlantic League pitching. His .522 batting avg. and 1.288 OPS through 6 games are very impressive. Meanwhile, top catching prospect Travis D'Arnaud has a .207 batting avg. in 7 games. D'Arnaud does have a homer and 6 RBI in those 7 games though, so don't count him out.

23 year-old Clearwater first baseman, Matthew Rizzotti has 7 RBI in 6 games with a .476 batting avg. and a 1.187 OPS to go along with them, while OF prospect Dominic Brown struggles. Brown's .231 average and 2 RBI through 5 games is small time, based on what people expect from him this season.

Reading's back-up catcher may not be the back-up for too long. Kevin Nelson has 4 hits, one of which is a double and another a homer, in 5 at bats. That is a 2.400 OPS! The following probably should not surprise me, but Joe Bisenius continues to slip further away from the major leagues. The one time opening day Major League roster member, Bisenius, has given up 5 earned runs in just 3 1/3 innings pitched for the Reading Phils. That's a 13.50 ERA.

4/5 of The Lehigh Valley IronPigs' pitching rotation has a combined 2.10 ERA. 2 solid starts each from Carlos Carrasco and Kyle Kendrick added to nice starts from Justin Lehr and Rodrigo Lopez total 34 1/3 innings and only 8 earned runs. The thumbs-down recognition in Lehigh goes to Jason Ellison. His .382 OPS through 7 games is worse than horrific. No extra base hits and no RBI will not get Ellison back to the majors....ever.